Gypsy Davy- Guthrie (OK) c.1920s, REC 1942, REC 1944-45
[This is one of the influential US versions of Gyspy Davy and it could be considered traditional- adapted by Woody Guthrie. It appears Guthrie added one verse and made some changes to reflect his Oklahoma upbringing. According to Ed Cray (and others) in Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie, Guthrie (1912–1967) initially learned this ballad from his mother in Oklahoma. The date would have been circa 1920. At the bottom of the page below Dylan's text is an excerpt from: Woody Guthrie and His Folk Tradition by Richard A. Reuss.
Gypsy Davy was first recorded by Guthrie on Anglo-American Ballads, (AAFS 1-5), n.d. [1942), Side 2A; reissued on LP as AAFS LI.
Gypsy Davy was then recorded in 1944 or 1945, The Asch Recordings (Gypsy Davy- MA139) Possibly Guthrie's most famous recordings, conducted over a series of days by Moses "Moe" Asch in 1944 and 1945. They were issued on a variety of labels under Asch, Asch-Stinson, Asch-Signature-Stinson, Disc, Folkways and Verve/Folkways.
Guthrie's version can be quickly identified by a slight change he made in the lyrics to the opening verse: "It was late last night when the boss came home." His version was covered by Bob Dylan in 1961 and also his son Arlo Guthrie. See Dylan's 1961 lyrics below at the bottom of the page.
R. Matteson 2012]
Gypsy Davy- Woody Guthrie, first learned from his mother growing up in Oklahoma c. 1920, then adapted it from folk sources and according to Lomax- wrote the third verse. Guthrie first recorded it in 1942, Anglo-American Ballads, (AAFS 1-5), then again in 1944 & 1945, The Asch Recordings (Gypsy Davy- MA139). The sheet music (below), from an online source, claims to be Guthrie's version- although some of the text doesn't match.
Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufBNBaKO1fc
It was late last night when the boss came home
Askin' for his lady
The only answer that he got,
"She's gone with the Gypsy Davy,
She's gone with the Gypsy Dave."
Go saddle for me a buckskin horse
And a hundred dollar saddle.
Point out to me their wagon tracks
And after them I'll travel,
After them I'll ride.
Well I had not rode to the midnight moon,
When I saw the campfire gleaming.
I heard the notes of the big guitar
And the voice of the gypsies singing
That song of the Gypsy Dave.
There in the light of the camping fire,
I saw her fair face beaming.
Her heart in tune with the big guitar
And the voice of the gypsies singing
That song of the Gypsy Dave.
Have you forsaken your house and home?
Have you forsaken your baby?
Have you forsaken your husband dear
To go with the Gypsy Davy?
And sing with the Gypsy Davy?
The song of the Gypsy Dave?
Yes I've forsaken my husband dear
To go with the Gypsy Davy,
And I've forsaken my mansion high
But not my blue-eyed baby,
Not my blue-eyed baby.
She smiled to leave her husband dear
And go with the Gypsy Davy;
But the tears come a-trickling down her cheeks
To think of the blue-eyed baby,
Pretty little blue-eyed baby.
Take off, take off your buckskin gloves
Made of Spanish leather;
Give to me your lily-white hair
And we'll ride home together
We'll ride home again.
No, I won't take off my buckskin gloves,
They're made of Spanish leather.
I'll go my way from day to day
And sing with the Gypsy Davy
That song of the Gypsy Davy,
That song of the Gypsy Davy,
That song of the Gypsy Dave.
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Gypsy Davy- Bob Dylan on East Orange Tape, Feb-Mar 1961
Most likely source: Woody Guthrie, The Early Years (Tradition FS-204).
It was late last night when the Lord came in...
It was late last night when the boss come home
Asking 'bout his lady,
The only answer that he got,
"She's gone with the Gypsy Davey,
She's gone with the Gypsy Dave."
"Go saddle for me my buckskin horse
And hundred dollar saddle,
Point out to me their wagon tracks,
And after them I'll travel,
And after them I'll ride."
Well, he had not rode till the midnight moon
He saw the campfire gleamin'.
He heard the sound of the big guitar,
An' the voice of the gypsy singin'
That song of the Gypsy Dave.
An' there by the light of the campin' fire,
[SUNG AS: "An' there by the night of the camplin' fire..."]
He saw her fair face beamin',
Her heart in tune to the big guitar
And the sound of the gypsy singin'
That song of the Gypsy Dave.
"Have you forsaken your house and home,
Have you forsaken your baby?
Have you forsaken your husband dear
To go with the Gypsy Davey,
To go with the Gypsy Dave? "
"Yes, I've forsaken my husband dear
To go with the Gypsy Davey.
And I've forsaken my mansion high,
But not my blue-eyed baby,
But not my blue-eyed babe."
She turned to go away from him
And go with the Gypsy Davey,
But the tears come tricklin' down her cheeks
To think of her blue-eyed baby,
To go with the blue-eyed babe.
"Take off, take off your buckskin gloves
Made of Spanish leather,
And give to me your lily white hand
To go ride home together,
And we'll ride home again. "
"I'm not take off my buckskin gloves
Made of Spanish leather,
I'll go on my way from day to day
To be with the Gypsy Davey,
To go with the Gypsy Dave,
Sing with the Gypsy Davey,
Go with the Gypsy Dave."
---------------------------
Excerpt from: Woody Guthrie and His Folk Tradition
Richard A. Reuss
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 83, No. 329 (Jul. - Sep., 1970), pp. 273-303
Prior to 1939, and in some cases a fterwards, his utilization of themes, imagery, style, tunes, and form was so completely within the musical heritage from which he came that it is hard to tell where tradition ends and Woody Guthrie begins. A classic example is Guthrie's "reworking" of "The Gypsy Davy," which Alan Lomax and others long have held to be a unique recreation on the part of the Oklahoma balladeer. In his notes to Woody's recording for the Library of Congress, [63] released commercially in 1942, Lomax observed that Guthrie was responsiblef or interpolating a single stanza into the ballad, which had the effect of lifting the entire song out of what was essentially an English setting and placing it instead in the Southwest.
The verse in question depicts a campfire scene with the gypsy playing the guitar and serenading his lady with what presumably is a cowboy song:
Well, he had not rode till the midnight moon
Till he saw the campfire gleamin',
And he heard the gypsy's big guitar,
And the voice of the lady singin'
The song of the Gypsy Dave.
Lomax notes that Woody edited the song to reflect his "Oklahoma upbringing," the "milk white steed" becoming the buckskin horse, and so on. Guthrie himself is not so specific, but he also hints at having made major changes in the lyrics in his "Old Book" manuscript collection of songs. "This song changed when it come west. Because one nite in a saloon a feller said he'd give me four bits to sing it for him and I just remembered the first v erse- and so I needed the money for a flop and a slop- so here's what come out of it."
But the assumption that the western innovations of "The Gypsy Davy" were exclusively Woody's cannot go unchallenged. In "ClaytonB oone,"a I961 variant recorded by cowboy-artist Harry Jackson, the southwestern trappings are even more elaborate. The ballad is set on the Mexican border, the boss's horse (replacing the lord's steed) is a dun, the saddle is silver, leather chaps are worn, and the gypsy is a sweet-singing mandolin player.
I rode until the midnight sun
Till I seen their campfire burnin',
And I heard the sweetest mandolin
And the voice of young Dave singin'.[64]
Since Jackson learned his version of the song in Wyoming in the late 1930s from a cowboy named Ed Marchbank, and Guthrie elsewhere asserts that he heard a dozen different texts over the years, [65] one is left with the conclusion that the verse and its western ornamentation are in large part traditional rather than a product of Woody's creative imagination.
When composing his own material, Guthrie most often would create new lyrics using the framework of an old song. Generally, this meant simply writing new words to a standard tune, for while Woody reworked melodies freely he seldom wrote music on his own; he borrowed virtually all of his musical repertory from folk and hillbilly sources, notably the recordings of the Carter Family.
63 Anglo-American Ballads, (AAFS 1-5), n.d. [1942), Side 2A; reissued on LP as AAFS LI.
64 The Cowboy (Folkways FH 5723).
65 Liner notes to Songs by Woody Guthrie (Asch 347).